Fasting can help kill cancer. It reprograms the immune system’s ‘natural killer’ (NK) cells to combat cancer’s spread, and it also starves cancer cells of the nutrients they need to grow.
Researchers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre have discovered in lab tests how fasting kickstarts the NK cells into action.
NK cells are a type of white blood cell that can kill abnormal or damaged cells, such as cancer cells or cells infected by a virus. Unlike T cells, they can ward off a threat even if they have never encountered it before.
Fasting for up to 24 hours twice a week—and then eating normally the rest of the time—reduces glucose (sugar) levels and increases free fatty acids, which are lipids released by fat cells that act as an alternative energy source.
During the fasting periods, the NK cells learned to use the fatty acids, which “optimizes their anticancer response,” explained Rebecca Delconte, one of the researchers.
The two 24-hour weekly fasts didn’t have any detrimental effect, and there was no weight loss, the researchers added.
For the next phase of the study, the researchers will test different types of fasting to see which are the most effective.
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